Return to Unova: Tepig's Journey
by falconstar100
Summary: After being taken from his home in Pinwheel forest, Benji escapes the clutches of Team Plasma only to find himself in the strange land that is the Johto region. So begins his journey, but will he ever make it home?
1. Capture

**Yes, yes, to those who are kind enough to have read my other stories, I WILL finish Fang and Metal, eventually. Just give me some time, all right? Yes, I'm lazy, I know.**

**This is something different for me, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I hope to. Not the greatest title in the world, but I hope the story makes up for that. **

**Anyway, I'll stop babbling and let you get on with it, while giving you the disclaimer that all I own literature-wise is a lot of unfinished prologues and a heron with anger issues. Enjoy!**

There was fire that night.

That's what he would remember most vividly, anyway. The red-orange flames greedily licking against the trees, snapping at each other as if arguing over who got the best bits.

It had been an accident. A Pansear had lost control as they had cornered it, throwing flames in all directions. However, it had mostly missed the Lillipup and Purrloin and instead set fire to the vegetation. Now the embers had become huge, roaring flames that spread through the forest like a herd of Ponyta and lit up Pinwheel Forest in the night. All around, the forest's residents were desperately trying to get away from the heat. Pidove took to the skies, some fighting to be the first to get above the trees and sending grey feathers floating down below. Pansage swung from branch to branch among the trees that had not yet caught fire, chattering to each other in alarm. Some braver water Pokémon, mostly Tympole and Panpour had turned back, trying to fight back the blaze, though it was not going very well.

Benji, however, kept running. He couldn't have helped anyway, and he had no intention of being made into bacon. He skidded as he nearly ran into a Venipede, who shot him a dirty look before turning away again. Benji couldn't blame him. Everyone wanted to get out, and all were moving together as one herd. All reason and control had left as each and every Pokémon fought for their lives. He'd already had to duck a vine whip from an angry Pansage who had been in the middle of a tussle with another of its kind. And who could blame them all for their desperation? It wasn't just the fire they were fleeing. Oh no, there was something else, keeping just ahead of the flames but still intently stalking their prey.

The Grey Men.

They had set the Lillipup and Purrloin on the poor Pansear, and there were several more hunting with them, sniffing out the hiding, leaping out at those who thought they were out of reach. Benji didn't know why the Grey Men had it in for them, but he had no wish to find out.

This time he really did crash; straight into a bewildered Tranquill. This one seemed to have retained a little sanity, however, for instead of pecking him on the snout and moving on, he swept him out of the way of the crowd behind him, and both stood for a minute, gasping for breath.

"Did you see what's going on back there?" He asked.

Benji shook his head. "Didn't see too much. But there are men in grey everywhere, and there's no way they're trainers."

"They had Pokémon with them though, right?" The Tranquill scratched at the ground. "What did we ever do to them?"

"They're humans." A voice said. "Do they need a reason?"

Both turned in surprise. Emerging from the bushes was a tall, deer-like creature, looking down at them. It bent its long green neck until it was at eye-level with them.

"Virizion!" Whispered Benji in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Protecting my people." It replied, regarding him with an eye not unlike the flames in colour. "Tell me, Tepig, where are the humans?"

He didn't have to be answered. With a yowl, a purple, cat-like creature sprung onto Virizion's back, clawing wildly. The great Pokémon bellowed and kicked out wildly, trying to dislodge his attacker.

"Purrloin! Not him! We can't hurt him!"

At the sound of the human voice, the Purrloin leapt away from Virizion, scampering back to its master.

"Get away," Virizion whispered to them. "Make sure everyone is out. I'll take care of them."

It sprang forward, giving a few of the Grey Men an unpleasant surprise in the process.

The two smaller Pokémon were not so lucky, however.

Before Benji could open his mouth, he was sent sprawling by a tackle. When he got up, he saw a Herdier growling at him. A Purrloin and several more Lillipup were approaching too, closing the circle.

No way out.

"Tepig!" Tranquill was hovering above helplessly.

"Don't worry about me!" Benji assured him. "Do as Virizion said! Get everyone out!"

The bird hesitated, then, with a final apologetic glance, took off into the darkness.

Benji turned back to his attackers, ears going flat against his head. Not wasting time, he spat a rain of embers at the Herdier, only to have the Purrloin pin him down from behind. He bucked and kicked wildly, but it was no use.

"Please!" He said, desperate now. "Why are you doing this? We're all Pokémon here!"

"It is for a greater good," Said a Lillipup softly. "This is the only way you'll all see."

Then he felt the Purrloin's teeth sink into his neck, and all turned black.


	2. Waking Up

**Back again! Sorry this chapter's so short- busy week, and once again, I am so damn lazy. But I have an idea on how this story is going to go now. Not that didn't before, but things have become a little clearer.**

**Chapter 7 of Fang and Metal is on the way, dear readers. All I need is patience and perhaps the occasional prod. **

**However, you didn't come here to read about Time Lords and Dragons- you came for Tepig! And Tepig you shall have!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"Hey, looks like he's waking up!"

Slowly, painfully, Benji came to. His spine, from his neck to his tail, was aching, and he had no idea where he was. He lifted his head slightly, trying to blink away the blurriness and make sense of his surroundings, which seemed to be obscured by strips of black.

Where ever he was, he wasn't alone. All around, he could hear whispering, and maybe he had just had a very hard knock on the head, but the voices seemed to be talking about him.

"I thought he was dead,"

"Well, didn't you see that knock they gave him? Anyone his size would be in pretty bad shape if they got a hit like that…"

"What is he, though? I mean, he looks a little like a Spoink and a Vulpix got a little close, if you know what I mean…"

With the blurriness almost gone, Benji groaned and pulled himself up. Now he realized why it had been so hard to see at first- the black strips hadn't been his eyes, it had been dark metal bars, attached to the rest of the cage.

He wasn't the only one trapped, though. In the dim light, he realized that cages were stacked high all over the little room, and all were filled with Pokémon of all shapes and sizes. Sad-looking Tympole clustered together, two Blitzles sparked nervously, and a Munna dozed, shuddering occasionally as it lost itself in someone else's nightmares. The other cages were full of creatures he'd never seen before- a pink cat-like Pokémon with large ears, a creature that looked like a Patrat with smaller eyes and buck teeth, a sturdy looking elephantine thing with blue skin, and a huge, hulking figure he only now just realized was not a rock.

Cautiously, he thrust his snout through the bars. "Hello? Where are we?"

"Hey," Said a round brown bird with large red eyes. "He _is_ up!"

"Nice to see you up," Commented one of the Blitzles. "I'm surprised you weren't knocked comatose by that hit on the head!"

"What?" His head ached, true, but he remembered nothing. "What are you talking about?"

"You set up a mighty squealin' when they dragged you up, yup yup." Explained the buck-toothed Patrat. "You'd only just come around, too. The only way they could keep ya quiet was to whack ya, I guess."

Benji shook his head. "Well they must have hit me _really_ hard- I don't even remember that happening!"

"Those men sure were rough," Shivered a Tympole. "What do they want with us?"

No one seemed sure of that.

"They said doing this was for our own good…" A wavering voice suggested.

"Oh _yes_, because locking someone in a cage does wonders for your health," Snapped someone else.

"Well, the other men the leader was talking to weren't like the Grey Men… Maybe that one is helping us?"

"Maybe they're taking us somewhere safer?"

"What if this is some new Trainer thing?"

"What if they're getting rid of Viridian Forest?" A green insect-creature wailed. That seemed to make things worse.

"They wouldn't! They wouldn't dare!"

"I want to go home!"

"Food! I'll tell you what they're doing!" The blue Pokémon raised its trumpeting voice above the rest." "They're gonna ship us off to slaughter houses, and then they'll slit our throats! The ones that won't get eaten will still have their coats worn for clothes, or put to work cleaning up the mess! That's what they _do_! That's what-!"

"Will you all _SHUT UP ALREADY_?"

Everyone shut up.

The voice had come from the cage beside Benji. Inside it was a small purple rodent. It looked like it had seen a lot more trouble than the others- its fur was scruffy, and one ear had a notch in it. It glared out at the other Pokémon with such ferocity that even the largest fell silent.

"Some of you," He said at last. "Would say that they're helping us. Others would say we're gonna be human-food. Well, you know what? Everything you lot is saying is a load of Tauros-crap. You get that?" He settled himself down, a little more relaxed. "I'll tell you what's goin' on. Whatever the Grey fellows want, their sure has different ideas. If you hadn't been so busy crying for your mothers, you'd have heard what's going on. Go on. Ask me."

There was a pause. Then, a yellow rodent, bigger than the speaker, asked timidly; "What's going on, Rattata?"

"We've changed hands, that's what. The Grey's boss was making deals. You see those folks that were loading us on? Do you know who they are?" He cast his gaze around the room. "Well, some of you might not, but those of you around Kanto and Johto will be pretty vexed to know that he just sold us over to Rockets."

There were murmurings of confusion and gasps of horror.

"That's right." Said Rattata with gloomy satisfaction. "And y'know how I know? This ain't the first time I've been shipped out. Nope, I got sent out before- but there sending me along with you lot for disobedience." He flashed a crooked smile, turning to Benji.

"Where you from then? And what are ya, anyhow?"

"I'm a Tepig. From Unova."

"Unova…" Rattata said thoughtfully. "Can't say I've ever heard of _that_ before. Say, ya got a name, Tepig?"

"I'm Benji." He drew closer to the other Pokémon's cage. "What about you?"

"Tuss, that's what they call me." He closed his eyes. "To answer your earlier question; even I don't know where we are exactly. Somewhere in the ocean. We left Hoenn a couple of hours ago."

"The ocean?" Benji's heart leapt in his chest. "We're being taken away!"

"I believe I already explained that."

"Yes but… If these Rockets are as bad as they sound, shouldn't we be escaping? Maybe we could break the bars with a decent tackle-"

"If it was that simple, don'tcha think it would have been done?" Tuss snapped. "These bars are shock-proof, fire-proof, everything-proof. All I can say is get used to it."

"But-"

"Or, if not get used to it, then at least don't bother me about it." The Rattata turned over on his side.

Sinking feeling growing in his chest, Benji spat a couple of embers on the plastic floor of his cage. It didn't do anything to it, but it did heat it up to make him comfortable.

Feeling miserable, and already used to that strange rocking feeling he now knew was the ship, Benji eventually dozed off, dreaming of Pinwheel forest as he was taken ever further from it.

* * *

**Well, there you go! A traitor in Team Plasma handed them over to Team Rocket for their own nefarious purposes! **

**As you might have figured- the name of a Pokemon's species is kind of the more formal way of saying their name in this fic. They do have names, but they're not always used, which is why Benji and Tuss are the only names to have been mentioned.**

**Anyway- your thoughts? Critique? Things I should and shouldn't do? I'd love to read your reviews on it. *nudge nudge*.**

**Until next time, my little Mareep!**


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